One Night Only: Chefs Chang, Choi and Puck

Chef Wolfgang Puck arrives at the Oscars at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 24, 2013

Celebrity chefs David Chang, Roy Choi and Wolfgang Puck cooked and served a one-night-only seven-course meal at the Hotel Bel Air last night. The event, floated on Mr. Puck’s Twitter account a few weeks ago, sold out within about an hour at $190 a head, plus $80 for wine.

Mr. Chang, famous for his Momofuku restaurant empire, said he flew across the country with some of his staff because, “Chef asked. Wolfgang is one of the pioneers and the guy that without him, Roy and I wouldn’t really be here.” Mr. Puck said the purpose of the evening was to shake things up at his hotel restaurant and tap into the energy of the “new generation.” Just before service in the kitchen, Mr. Choi watched Mr. Puck gobble up a piece of his sous-vide-and-fried Cornish game hen. Mr. Choi gripped his head in disbelief.

“This is unbelievable, watching Chef eat my food,” said Mr. Choi, who first achieved national fame in 2008 with his Tweeting Kogi taco truck concept. Today, he has three restaurants and plans to open a fourth, to be called Pot, this fall.

Each chef and his team got their own station in Mr. Puck’s huge kitchen and made two dishes. Around six, the teams gathered with the wait staff to explain their food. Mr. Puck introduced the chefs, saying that if the restaurant ever made enough money, he would hire the Kogi truck to come by for lunch. Mr. Chang raved over the local produce and said that at the last minute, he couldn’t resist adding a salad to his short rib dish.

“You guys are lucky, man,” said Mr. Chang, hanging his head.

At 6:30, the room began to fill up with spiffily dressed Hollywood types and food establishment personalities, including Barbara Fairchild, former editor of Bon Appetit magazine, and Phil Rosenthal, creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and a world-class foodie, who recently shot a pilot with chef Thomas Keller for a food reality series he wants to make.

“I think David Chang is a brilliant artist, almost a mash-up artist, and Roy is kind of a disciple of his,” Mr. Rosenthal said. Screenwriter Hank Steinberg, whose credits include executive producing “Without a Trace,” called the food “incredible, a great mix of different flavors.”

Later seatings brought in a younger, scruffier crew who looked like they might have chased the Kogi truck a time or two. They chowed on Mr. Chang’s notoriously spicy pork-sausage with rice cakes and sucked on the heads of Mr. Choi’s giant Santa Barbara Spot Prawns. Mr. Puck’s succulent lobster in a perfumed curry-leaf and citrus sauce drew soft gasps from diners.

As the evening wore on, Mr. Puck emerged from the kitchen with Mrrs. Choi and Chang in tow. Mr. Chang looked over his shoulder uncomfortably as the trio hovered over a table.

“I never do this. I never come out and meet people,” Mr. Chang muttered.

“Let’s get a picture with this beautiful lady!” Mr. Puck proposed in his characteristic Austrian shout.

Mr. Puck might have taken lessons last night from Mrrs. Chang and Choi in Korean ingredients, new flavor combinations, and tattoos, but for the rest of night, the younger generation of chefs got schooled by the grand master in the art of working the room.

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